Monday, August 3, 2009

Dirty Girls Coming Up, Weekly and Monthly Training Update

Next RaceNext weekend both Kim and I will be running the Dirty Girls Trail Race. It takes place on Saturday August 8th in Mansfield and is part of the OUSer running series. Both of us are signed up for the 6 hour solo event. Originally Kim had planned to do the 6 hour relay event but after being unable get enough team members onboard she decided to just do it herself (you are amazing honey). Will blog about this more in more detail later this week.

BTW if anyone reading this is going to the race from Toronto we would love to find someone to ride share with.... just putting it out there.

Training UpdatesThis month was a really good training month although just about any month you run and stay healthy is a pretty good month but this one went very well.

Hit two training milestones this week (or is that millstones?). First one is last week I ran the most miles ever for me in a single week. Ran 68 miles three more then my previous longest week. Actually not sure how this happened as I had planned on 65 but I was just going with the flow.

Secondly I ran the most miles ever for me in a single month. July topped out at 279.5 miles. That’s 43 miles more then my next best month. To celebrate I bought a carton of smokes (Export A green) and smoked them all in one sitting. Okay maybe not but it’s the thought that counts.

Sunday 20 miles Long runThis was probably the craziest training run ever for me. Planned to get up early and run with Thunderstorms in the forecast for the last morning. Of course that just didn’t happen. Kim left for her run with me puttering around the house drinking coffee and procrastinating. Finally headed out for my run. Within 30 minutes the sunny skies had disappeared and I could see big black clouds on the horizon. Crap.

Saw Kim on the beltline she had been so much smarter then me and was almost done her run. Clouds were much closer now. Double crap.

Hit the half way mark of my run as I circled around inside Mount Pleasant cemetery. Most other runners that had been around earlier had magically disappeared. Giant black clouds raced over head and Thunder claps boomed loudly in the distance. I saw one other runner stopped and looking up at the sky. I stopped to look as well. He said.. "That looks kind of ominous". I asked him if he had seen any lightning which he hadn’t so I keep going.

Back out onto the beltline, 8 miles to go, and the sky opened up big time. Thunder, lightning and the hardest rain I think I have ever seen. Nothing I write here can really do it justice. Now I love running in the rain but there is rain and then there is rain. Triple crap.

I ducked under a shrub.. yes a scrub.. I know better then to stand under a tree, and tried to wait it out. There was literally nowhere else to hide. I figured that I can’t rain this hard for very long. Yeah right. After about 5 minutes the shrub began to cease giving me any protection at all. It wasn’t going to slow anytime soon and I was trapped on the beltline with 8 miles to go. Since I was getting soaked anyways I said screw it and headed out into the rain. Quadruple crap.

Heaviest rain I have ever been out in. The beltline was a river. My poor IPod had no where to hide and stopped working. I just hoped to avoid getting hit by lightning. Saw only 4 other runners over the 3 miles on the beltline and none of them looked very happy... no runners waves were returned.

At the end of beltline the rain slowed to a normal rain. I had to take my shirt off and wring it out as it weighted about 5 pounds. Why didn’t I run earlier... grrrrrrr. Last few miles home sun began to come back out.

Monday no runRest day. Still drying out. IPod has recovered and working ... I am pleasantly surprised by this.

Tuesday 10 milesEvening run on the trails. Took it easy. Nothing to report.

Wednesday 12 milesRan with the club on the lakeshore. Added some threshold / tempo running in the middle of my run. 2 x 15 minutes with a 3 minute break in between. First interval ran at 7:27 pace. Steve ran with me for this one. Second interval I ran alone. It was suppose to be at the same pace but I got antsy and ran it at a 7:15 pace. I just wanted to get it over with. Unfortunately when you are doing intervals by time running faster doesn’t actually get you done any quicker.. like duh.

Also was almost seriously injured / killed. This is not an exaggeration!! Our run is an out and back on Wednesday. We turn around at the Legion (for those of you that know the Lakeshore). This is the only place were there is actually a hill. As I hit the Legion I still had another 20 seconds in my interval left so I kept going. It goes down a pretty good long hill here. The paved path is divided into right and left lanes as it’s a well travelled bike and running path. I slowed down (exhausted) and looked ahead. Nothing coming so I turned to go into the other lane and head back. As I did I heard someone yell "Look Out" . I looked and froze as I bike whipped past me missing colliding with me by a fraction of an inch. It could not have been any closer without touching me. He was going at least 30 miles an hour using the downhill... AT LEAST 30!!

Okay will not go into my bike rant here. Maybe someday but not today BUT...

First I must take some responsibility as I was tired and didn’t look over my shoulder behind me to make sure all is clear. I didn’t do anything wrong but you have to be aware and responsible for yourself out there. Just like you don’t cross the street on a walk light without looking both ways, even it you have the right away. The right away will not help you recover from serious injury. I always look but didn’t this time.

The biker did the following:passed in the wrong lanepassed on the wrong sidedidn’t have or use a belldidn’t slow to pass a runnerWas going way to fast. In face Steve tells me that there is acutally posted signs on the hill that say max speed 20km to stop idiot bikers from pulling this crap. Oh no I think I will stop here as I feel a full blown rant coming on. Want to save that one for its own blog day.

Thursday 9 milesEasy run on normal road route. Very hot and humid. Ran it a bit to fast. Did the same thing last week. Not sure why. Legs felt good.

Friday 8 milesTrack work out. Steve coaching in Georges place. I tried to give him a especially hard time. He ignored me. Workout was 400, 800, 1200, 400, 800, 1200. Turned out to be another very good workout. Have taken 8 to 10 seconds off of my 800 times and 1200times since the start of track training. Excellent (800s ran in 3:15, 1200s ran in 5:00)

Saturday 9 milesClub run on trails. Good run but ran to fast for a couple of miles in the middle of the workout. Also as I was running and talking to Jason my foot clipped a small stump at the top of a hill and I nearly face planted big time. Just able to right myself as I stumbled down the hill and narrowly avoided slamming into a large tree. Thank you running gods.

wow-good for you and great war story with the deluge! Last year I got caught in the same place in the middle of an 18 miler-I recall making it to underneath the Eglinton bridge where I stood on one foot and wrung out each of my socks. You'll be stronger for it when it comes to race day.

I wonder what would happen if there were that sort of storm during Scotia or GoodLife. People would die!

Wow, I am impressed with the mileage. Oh, and I so procrastinate the long runs...and end up running in the middle of the day, in 80-90 degrees, wishing for rain (though no storms). Good luck with the race! Ana-Maria

C+C Runnning Factory

C+C Running Factory

About Me

I am a 40 something road and trail runner living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I try to get out and run almost every day even when the weather doesn’t want to cooperate. See my initial blog entry for more about me. My habit of talking (or writing) on and on leaves the space under the “About Me” section woefully inadequate which will come as no surprise to those of you that know me.